Juncker in bid to have Commission approved next week

The imperative for the next college of European commissioners to be in place by 1 November prompted president-elect Jean-Claude Juncker to keep the changes to his line-up to the bare minimum after the withdrawal of Slovenia’s Alenka Bratušek.

He promoted Maroš Šefcovic to vice-president for energy union, the job earmarked for Bratušek before her political self-destruction last week. Šefcovic’s previous assignment, as commissioner for transport, went to Violeta Bulc, Bratušek’s designated replacement.

This, the thinking went among Juncker’s aides, would require just two more confirmation hearings by the European Parliament: one for Bulc, whom Juncker’s spokesman yesterday (15 October) described as “a fast learner”, and one for Šefcovic, a second-term commissioner who sailed through his confirmation hearing as transport commissioner-designate on 30 September.

Holding the two hearings on Monday would make it possible to hold a vote in plenary on the entire college of commissioners on Wednesday or Thursday (22 or 23 October). Juncker is currently scheduled to present his line-up and the Commission’s work programme to the plenary in Strasbourg on Wednesday morning, with a confirmation vote scheduled later in the day.

Sticking to the schedule or delaying by just one day would make it possible for the European Council – the group of national leaders of the member states of the EU – to appoint the college at its meeting of 23-24 October, and for the next Commission to take office on 1 November.

A Parliament source said that while in principle MEPs might be opposed to arranging confirmation hearings at such short notice because this left very little time for preparations, they, too, had an interest in a smooth start for the Juncker Commission, which they see to some extent as their own creation.